Now the relation which, in the sphere of nature, being and semblance or sensation bear to one another in this antithesis, is the same as that which in ethics exists between good and pleasure or feeling.
Interpretation
The quote suggests a parallel between the relationship of reality and perception in nature and the relationship of morality and pleasure in ethics.
Friedrich Schleiermacher highlights a fundamental relationship in both the natural world and ethical considerations, drawing a comparison between the way being and appearance coexist in nature and how good and pleasure or feelings coexist in ethical contexts. This illustrates the complexities of how we perceive reality and morality, suggesting that both are subject to the interplay of objective existence and subjective experience.
In practice
In a debate about moral dilemmas, this quote can illustrate the complexity of ethical decision-making.
The first, that their pretensions to this possession of an art properly so called in their art of speaking are entirely unfounded; and the second, that they are involved in a profound mistake in their confusion of the good with the pleasant.
Whenever I find a spark of that hidden fire that will sooner or later consume the old and create the new, I am drawn to it with love and hope, regarding it as a sign of my future home.
Either the translator leaves the author in peace, as much as is possible, and moves the reader towards him: or he leaves the reader in peace, as much as possible, and moves the author towards him.
The essence of the religious emotions consists in the feeling of an absolute dependence.
The essence of religion consists in the feeling of an absolute dependence.
Belief must be something different from a mixture of opinions about God and the world, and of precepts for one life or for two. Piety cannot be an instinct craving for a mess of metaphysical and ethical crumbs.
I think I give the impression of being a romantic, and I think inside I'm quite severe. But some might say they had the opposite impression of me.
We think the Dred Scott decision is erroneous. We know the court that made it has often overruled its own decisions, and we shall do what we can to have it overrule this.
Spiritual growth involves giving up the stories of your past so the universe can write a new one.
Lo, sleep is good, better is death--in sooth The best of all were never to be born.
I'm saying look, here they come, pay attention. Let your eyes transform what appears ordinary, commonplace, into what it is, a moment in time, an observed fragment of eternity.
Your duty is to be, and not to be this or that. I Am That I Am sums up the whole truth; the method is summarized in Be Still.
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